Biologists launch research into cownose rays after videos capture killings

Each summer, schools of cownose rays migrate up the Chesapeake Bay to birth pups and mate, their wings rising like shark fins and startling swimmers. The ancient species attracted little interest until four months ago, when wildlife advocates filmed fishing tournaments where rays were shot with arrows and clubbed to death. Now, state officials and biologists along the Atlantic Coast are partnering to study the population and amass research that could be used to build a case to regulate the tournaments.

Biologists launch research into cownose rays after videos capture killings

Each summer, schools of cownose rays migrate up the Chesapeake Bay to birth pups and mate, their wings rising like shark fins and startling swimmers.

The ancient species attracted little interest until four months ago, when wildlife advocates filmed fishing tournaments where rays were shot with arrows and clubbed to death.

Now, state officials and biologists along the Atlantic Coast are partnering to study the population and amass research that could be used to build a case to regulate the tournaments.

"We are in the information-gathering phase, and trying to figure out if we need to proceed and how to do that," said Lynn Fegley, a deputy director with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

State officials and researchers, some from as far as Massachusetts, gathered Thursday at the National Aquarium in Baltimore to discuss the cownose rays, a species native to the Chesapeake — but relatively unknown.

Michael Meade caught the fish 17.49-pounder with a bow and arrow in the marshes of Mattawoman Creek, according...

No one knows how many rays arrive each year, or how many are killed.

The species, in fact, was mostly overlooked before the advocates filmed the June fishing tournament in St. Mary's County. The edited film was played at the Annapolis library about a week later. It showed fishermen shooting, with bow and arrow, the rays swimming on the surface. The rays were hauled in, their wings flapping, and clubbed.

One ray was pregnant. Some dead rays were dumped overboard; the video went viral.

"If that wouldn't have happened, I don't think we'd be here right now," said Robert Fisher, with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, at Thursday's meeting.

After the filming, advocates called on Gov. Larry Hogan to halt the tournaments. A 16-year-old girl from Frederick County began an online petition and collected nearly 100,000 signatures within weeks.

A spokeswoman in Hogan's office did not respond Thursday to a request for comment.

The fishing of rays remains unregulated by state and federal authorities.

Mary Finelli, of Montgomery County, filmed the video. She's a member of Fish Feel, a Silver Spring-based organization "devoted exclusively to promoting the recognition of fish as sentient beings deserving of respect and protection," according to the organization's website.

"These tournaments are just for the thrill of the kill," she told the researchers on Thursday. "Something has to be done. Stop it and stop it soon."

Still, officials said any action will wait until more is known about the rays.

"There hasn't been a commercial interest, which is usually a driver for some of the research. There hasn't historically been that for the cownose ray. There's been some work, but not much," said Robert Aguilar, a biologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater.

The rays are composed entirely of cartilage, like sharks and skates. Mature rays are brown with a whitish belly. They can grow nearly 4 feet wide and weigh 50 pounds or more. Cownose rays take their name from their notched head, which resembles a cow muzzle. They use their wings to churn the bay's bottom sediments to uncover hidden clams and oysters, which they then crush in powerful jaws.

These rays arrive in the Chesapeake in May and stay until early fall. Once in the bay, schools of up to 200 individuals swim north in search of food, arriving in the upper bay by early June. The rays give birth to live young, or pups, in mid-June.

The rays possess a toxin-laden stinger (or spine), located high on the tail close to the body, but stings are uncommon.

In 1608, Capt. John Smith had a near fatal encounter with a ray while spearfishing in the Virginia's Rappahannock River. The story has become bay lore — and the spot where Smith was stung is still known as Stingray Point.

Similarly, a 2010 report by the Chesapeake Bay Program, titled "On the Brink: Chesapeake's Native Oysters," explained the rise and fall of the bay's oysters. Chesapeake oyster reefs were once so massive they scraped the ships of European explorers. In recent years, the population has languished at about 1 percent of its historic level.

The Chesapeake Bay Program report recommended targeting poachers and expanding sanctuary reefs. It also said fishing for cownose rays should be encouraged.

"It is a problem. They've been known to clean out acres and acres (of oyster reefs) in a matter of hours," said Mike Hutt, executive director of the Virginia Marine Products Board. His job is to promote Virginia's seafood.

He's eaten cownose ray.

"It's a hard sell," he said. "The texture and bite to it is like eating flank steak or pork."

He succeeded in convincing Wegmans officials to carry fillets of cownose ray in stores around the Chesapeake. Chefs offered samples of smoked and pan-seared ray, along with the motto "Eat a ray, save the bay."

Last year, however, the grocery chain stopped selling ray steaks, said Jeanne Colleluori, a Wegmans spokeswoman.

The news was shared with stores in a May letter.

"We were made aware of some concerns about the life cycle of this species. The ray does not produce offspring until between six and eight years of age. ... With this long wait to reproduction we were concerned that the capture of young rays may contribute to overfishing."

Similarly, Steve Vilnit declined to promote the ray as a sustainable food. He worked five years promoting Chesapeake seafood for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

"We didn't because the low fecundity (reproductive) rate of cownose ray could result in them being very quickly overfished," he said.

After Thursday's meeting, the researchers and state officials will produce a report on cownose ray. That's expected by the end of the year. It will be used to make decisions about whether to regulate tournaments.

It will also dispel some myths, the researchers said.

It's unknown, in fact, whether the rays are harmful to other Chesapeake Bay species, said Peyton Robertson, director of the National Marine Fisheries Service. And despite the misconception, he said, the rays are not invasive like blue catfish.

"Eating a ray is not going to save the bay, in any way shape or form," he said. "Maybe it's 'Save the bay, eat a catfish.'"